PSA - Clown loaches WILL scratch acrylic aquariums

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whomikebrown89

Candiru
MFK Member
Oct 20, 2008
11
40
46
Malta, NY
To whom it may concern,

I purchased a 450g (8'x4') acrylic aquarium in early 2024, brand new. Tank is occupied by...

15 clown loaches (5"-10")
1 Black Arowana
1 Oscar
1 Flagtail Prochilodus
School of Red Hook Silver Dollars

The tank also contains pool filter sand. I have never used a sponge to clean the acrylic, I have always used just my hand to gently wipe the inside if there was some algae growth the flagtail could not reach.

I have literally thousands of small 0.25"- 0.5" sideways scratches everywhere. The only explanation being the clown loaches spines. I suspect when they school and rub the sides of the aquarium while swimming. They also at times may get startled and scratch while swimming in a similar pattern. It is really the only explanation. Most are very light scratches, but there are absolutely some scratches I suspect will not buff out with out some good effort.

A bit frustrating, because I attempted to search the web for instances of tank inhabitants scratching acrylic. Found some info on rays being a culprit, but never loaches. Would love to take some pictures, but the acrylic seems to distort any pictures I take making it almost impossible to picture.

So at least this PSA is out there.
 
Don’t think clown loaches can scratch the acrylic. They only open up their spine in defense when they engage in fighting one another, confined in a net or plastic bag.
 
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Fishman Dave said:
You mention you have a Flagtail!
Well known for their mouthing behaviour and I would guess quite raspy as they remove algae I believe in nature. Could he be the culprit?
Click to expand...

Americancichlidsaredabest said:
Was just thinking the same thing.
Click to expand...
Probably should have mentioned that the flag tail has only been in there for about 4 months. I started noticing the scratches prior to that. About 2-3 months prior. There are literally thousands of sideway scratches. The flagtail would make absolutely no sense whatsoever. They are distinct mostly straight sideways scratches.

I had a feeling people would doubt. That’s fine. But not a lot of people have a brand new acrylic aquarium with a school of larger clowns AND never scrubbed the acrylic. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever, has to be the loaches
 
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IMG_7456.jpeg

Was able to picture them using something black as a background. Sorry, no way that those were made by the flagtail. They are spine gouges

Should have also mentioned. 80% of the scratches are concentrated at the bottom 25% of the aquarium.
 
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